I am considering using a wAP as a repeater to another wAP.
wAP-1 will be the repeater and will need to allow client access (connection), preferably on both 2.4 and 5ghz bands.
wAP-2 will connect to wAP-1 preferably on 2.4ghz for uplink/backhaul (because of distance). And, wAP-2 should be accept client access (connections) on both bands.
If the “both bands” preference for either wAP is not possible, then the requirement would be that clients to wAP-2 connect at 2.4ghz
Does anyone have good config they can share for both of these wAPs?
It’s good when you use arm devices with the same radios drivers. The important thing is to have the same version of ROS!
Everything else is a simple test, which of the two radios is better for a basic link between them, according to the conditions.
You choose WAP1 for AP and WAP2 for Station Bridge. You put all wAP1 interfaces in bridge and add virtual radio on link wifi interface to AP mode on wAP2, and you put all interfaces in bridge too.
You can do both radio at the same time links, with RSTP on bridges serving for Feilover.
As is often my situation, I understand some of what you wrote, but not all.
Things I understand:
ARM devices better
All radios same drivers better
Same ROS version important
wAP-1 AP
wAP-2 Station Bridge
Things I don’t understand:
A) “add virtual radio on link” – is this a slave wifi interface? On both wAP devices?
B) Set the virtual (slave) wifi interface to AP mode on wAP-2?
C) Both wAP devices have absolutely all interfaces in bridge – does this include the ether interface on wAP-1 that is wired to upstream provider?
D) Where do I set RSTP on the bridge?
e) How do I get wAP-2 to connect to wAP-1?
A = yes, but only on wAP2 station bridge radio.
B = yes
C = yes or without the wan interface if you use wAP1 in router mode
D - RSTP work on bridges by default.
E - scan with wifi interface, connect to the desired SSID, set password, set the interface in station bridge mode.
If a radio has only two chains,
Then using the same radio for clients as between the APs etc, is going to suffer as radio time and throughput is shared.
Hence why logically, its better to LINK on one radio, and serve local clients on the other radio.
Also, remember that one can create vWLANs, virtual wlans but the only difference really is the SSID and security to access that SSID.
You are stuck with the same frequency and other settings. So its not like you can talk between the APs at frequency setting 1, and talk to local clients on 2.4 at frequency setting 11.
I suspect that ISPs that provide PUCKS or repeaters in the home have multiple radios inside, ( 2x2.4 and 2x 5ghz) otherwise dont understand how they get such good performance, unless
they are using a proprietary or other frequency to connect the devices together???
Before continuing, please note that NEW AC or AX drivers DO NOT SUPPORT any modes other than AP and simple client,
instead all old drivers support all legacy 4-MAC modes, like station-bridge, etc.
Will it work if I create a vWlan (slave) and put it in “simple client” mode, as a member of the bridge, with another slave vWlan (from the other band) in the same bridge?
Rextended, are you stating that one cannot use an AX3 product to connect to a capax like ptp or whatever, (connect to the capax over 2.4ghz) and then use Capax to distribute that incoming traffic locally over 5ghz?
I have to write that station-bridge and station-pseudobridge appeared in 7.18.1 in the hAPax² that I have for testing, so, I didn’t notice, they added something…
Well there is this in documentation: Whatever it means!
Lost features
The following notable features are lost when running 802.11ac products with drivers that are compatible with the ‘wifi’ management interface
Nstreme and Nv2 wireless protocols
VLAN configuration in the wireless settings (Per-interface VLANs can be configured in bridge settings)
→ Compatibility with station-bridging as implemented in the ‘wireless’ package, station-bridge only works between the same type of drivers. Wifi to Wifi, and Wireless to Wireless.
I just looked on my ax3 7.17 and no such choices in wifi menu OR quickset. Perhaps 7.18 is different??
YES I read that page too, and noted that the last entry was like 2022… It explains what these are in more detail.
Found in main wifi page down aways under CONFIGURATION PROPERTIES
mode (ap | station)
Interface operation mode
ap (default) - interface operates as an access point
station - interface acts as a client device, scanning for access points advertising the configured SSID
station-bridge - interface acts as a client device and enables support for a 4-address frame format, so that the interface can be used as a bridge port
station-pseudobridge - the interface keeps track of outgoing IP connections and performs MAC address translation similarly to how IP masquerading works
The ‘wifi’ station-bridge mode, is incompatible with APs running the older ‘wireless’ package and vice versa.
I’m waiting Mikrotik to add support for WDS AP and WDS Station modes for creating in the future, mesh+WDS network with more than 2 devices wired and wireless connected in the same time!